A lean, wiry album recorded in collaboration with Eric Clapton’s new all-British backing band (led by star-guitarist-in-the-making Albert Lee), Another Ticket arrived at a time of changing tastes and styles. Because of that it's been unfairly overlooked, even by diehard Clapton followers. While Lee brought out Clapton’s inner guitar hero on the needlelike blues tracks “Blow Wind Blow” (originally recorded by Muddy Waters) and “Floating Bridge” (originally by Sleepy John Estes), Another Ticket also includes “I Can’t Stand It,” “Catch Me If You Can," and “Rita Mae”: a trilogy of tight-yet-shuffling songs that regenerate the exemplary Tulsa style Clapton had honed during his years with Carl Radle. Lovers of Clapton’s acoustic works shouldn't pass up “Black Rose” or “Hold Me Lord,” two of the loveliest and most touching songs he recorded in the '80s. It's the title track, though, that clenches the heart. As full of hopelessness and woe as genuine love, “Another Ticket” displays a man overcome by weariness and desperation, yet wholly unable and unwilling to let go of the soul’s inner sweetness.